When Copyright Goes Bad

When Copyright Goes Bad

Info from the YouTube video page:

A film by Ben Cato Clough and Luke Upchurch.

Suddenly, copyright rules no longer do what they are supposed to do. They have gone bad.

This is a film about how copyright has become one of the most important consumer issues of the digital age; why corporate lobbying risks criminalising the actions of hundreds of thousands of people; and what the future holds for the fight for fairer copyright laws.

When Copyright Goes Bad is an introduction to the renegotiation of copyright and is for anyone interested in how copyright is affecting consumers. It features some of the key players in the copyright debate, including:

Fred Von Lohmann – Electronic Frontier Foundation; Michael Geist – University of Ottawa Law School; Jim Killock – Open Rights Group; and Hank Shocklee – Co-founder of Public Enemy.

For more, visit http://www.A2Knetwork.org/film

Microsoft: Litigate on FAT, and you’ll be the next Unisys

Microsoft: Litigate on FAT, and you’ll be the next Unisys (ZDNet.com)

Remember “Burn All GIFs” from 1999? In 2009, the Open Source mantra of choice could very easily turn into “Destroy all FATs”

The ‘Burn Your GIFs” campaign of 1999 has a follow up and for just as insidious reasons!

Please, take a few minutes to check out this ZDNet.com article and read up on this insidious mess that Microsoft has been pulling on Linux builders and users behind their backs!

This is a major issue and one that needs to be dealt with swiftly by anyone who uses GNU Linux knowingly or unknowingly (such as through your GPS device or smart phone).

We really need to wake up on this issue. Device creators are trying to keep the cost of their devices down to the customer and this is how we and they get paid back!

I get so angry that companies will take advantage of GNU Linux and then bite the very hand that feeds them with double deals under the table with large bully proprietary companies.

It really, really ticks me off.

Remember a certain company that created a Linux Distribution a while back and then turned around and started suing left and right? Making claims that GNU Linux violated their patents?

SCO -vs- IBM (and by extension GNU Linux)

Thank you TomTom for NOT violating the GPL! Thank you also for bringing this dirty little dealing to light! I hope you are eventually vindicated for being true to the GPL and Linux which buttered your bread — unlike some other companies.

Windows 7 Seemingly Blocks Audio Capture

Windows 7 Seemingly Blocks Audio Capture (LIfeHacker):

One rather feisty (and—surprise!—Linux-savvy) Slashdot reader writes about his DRM discoveries in Windows 7. Along with complaints about seemingly big-software-friendly firewall access and registration DLLs, the author’s chief discovery is that Windows 7 doesn’t allow for any kind of software audio capture. In other words, if you’ve got one application playing sound, Windows 7 doesn’t seem to allow you to use your same sound card to also grab the audio from that app.

Like one of the commenters said, I hope this is just a Beta issue and one that will be fixed by the time it is released. This is totally ludicrous. There are LOTS of valid, legal captures that can be done.

If this is some draconian DRM crap, Microsoft just did themselves out of a sale from me, and I will strongly recommend my clients move to the Mac.

This would be very disappointing if they didn’t fix this.

iTunes news and other Apple Macworld 2009 announcements

I watched the video of the Macworld 2009 Keynote last night by Philip Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Several things stood out for me. First once I got past Philip Schiller’s initial nervousness, he really did a great job. I am sure it weighted heavily on him when he first got up on stage.

Oh, yes, I did miss Steve Jobs being there but Philip did bring you in after the first few minutes with a similar type of excitement as Steve Jobs.

I am sure many will say he was no Steve Jobs, but Steve couldn’t be there – so that’s irrelevant. Philip did a great job and kept my interest and excitement on the products he was talking about. Which would have been hard ordinarily since hardware wise, there was only one new – upgraded thing.

I have to say I really did like the awesome features of the new iLife and iWork a lot, and the pricing was where it should be and I was very happy to see it! Thanks Apple! Oh, and the iPhone Remote app for Keynote presentations is really kewl too.

And who could be unhappy with iTunes Music Store going totally DRM-free by March and some songs going to 69 cents a song! That part was really good news.

However, in this economy, it’s sad that people will have to pay 30 cents PER SONG to remove the DRM (which sounds like extortion to me) … as TechCrunch pointed out here, that is quite a ‘music tax’ – $1.8 BILLION DOLLARS if everyone (over 6 BILLION songs) who has DRM’d music from the iTunes Store were to use the 1-click to remove the DRM from their entire library of songs. I hope the process is not too difficult to do on a onsey-twosey basis for folks. Cuz I have a feeling many will be having to do it by album or tracks over time, rather than the entire library like they were saying. Unless you had a small library.

Me? I never bought any DRM’d music so no sweat for me.

But will others who might have a BIG library be able to afford it in one fell swoop? Hard to say.

Also, I doubt if, for that money, the file will move from being a lower bit rate 128kbps DRM’s file to a 256kbps DRM-Free file like the iTunes Plus store has been selling.

The 17″ MacBook Pro sounds great as well with many new features. The 7-8 Hour/5 year Battery life sounds great, but I worry about the “being able to charge it 1,000 times.” The Anti-Glare Screen was greatly needed and I am sure will go over very big.

Philip did get me to want all of that … but then … I remembered I needed food on the table, fuel in the heater, and normal utilities to be paid, as well as gas in the car to get to appointments — maybe someday I might be able to consider buying something like that. It’s not your fault Philip, you did great! It’s the economy that sucks.

But then this from someone who hasn’t gotten the iPod Touch she wants yet either! LOL!